El Grito: Violence in Colombia continues to kill activists

Grito in Spanish can mean "to cry." For example, the cries of despair of Maria del Pilar Hurtado's son in a video that circulated throughout the Colombian media this summer.

In the video, the boy kicks and screams next to his mother's lifeless body in the town of Tierralta (Cordoba) in Colombia's northern Caribbean region.

Grito also means a call. The hashtag #Julio26ElGrito is a call to action; the social media response expresses the outrage of many Colombians at the ongoing and rising violence against land and human rights activists.

Despite the official ceasefire peace agreement signed by the government and FARC leaders in 2016 after 50 years of civil war, criminal armed groups have re-ignited the violence in areas previously occupied by FARC, and where the Colombian state has not established territorial control.

Land theft, displacement, dispossession, assassination and forced disappearances have been the tragic reality. Other key factors maintain and escalate the armed conflict, including rural inequality, displacement, impunity, the illegal drug economy, the military and private armed groups.

The increased presence of state, guerrilla and paramilitary groups has resulted in extreme violence and human rights violations against Black and Indigenous communities. In contexts of war, state and non-state actors perpetrate violence against women in order to instill fear, domination and control against communities that resist dispossession.

Feminicide - the killing of women and girls - represents the most extreme form along a continuum of violence against women and girls.

Research by Betty Ruth Lozano Lerma, an Afro Colombian sociologist, examines the consequences of feminicides in Afro Colombian communities. The implications transcend personal and familiar relations and impact their collective rights disrupting the relationships to their ancestral and traditional territories.

Barriers to justice

Trying to rebuild her family's life in Tierralta, Hurtado became involved in a dispute over access to land belonging to the mayor's father.

Following her assassination, the mayor's office released an official statement dismissing her role as a community organizer and activist.

Access to justice is a problem that many Colombians face. Prejudice against Black women and their communities, a symptom of systemic racism and ongoing colonial violence, creates additional barriers to justice.

Francia Marquez, recipient of the 2018 Goldman Prize for her social and environmental activism, condemned the murder of Maria del Pilar Hurtado, linking violence against women to structural racism.

He joined the people of Cartagena on the streets on July 26th for a protest to denounce violence against community activists. The crowd, expressed disapproval for Duque. His government has been openly critical of the peace agreement and has attempted to prevent its implementation

Representatives from the Commission travelled to Montreal and Toronto in April to meet with Colombians in exile, community organizations and academics to begin the process of documenting testimonies.

Meanwhile, the devastating ongoing violence and retaliation against community organizers and human and land rights activists continues. This past weekend, two Indigenous leaders were assassinated by illegal armed groups linked to drug trafficking, prompting the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca (CRIC) to declare a state of emergency in Colombia.